A Good Intention Gone Too Far?

There was an article in our local newpaper outlining Ontario’s proposal towards new organ donation rules. I scanned the article, and you can read it here. Apparently, it would be a “negative registration” kind of thing. Basically, you’re an organ donor unless you specify that you don’t want to be one. This is of special interest to me as I am a kidney transplant recipient from a cadaver donor. If some thoughtful and generous soul out there hadn’t taken action and signed the donor card, my quality of life would be nil by now. I know how important it is to sign the donor card, and have signed my own of course. Still, I’m not sure what to think of this proposed plan. I think more needs to be done to further organ donation, but I don’t think a plan this extreme is called for yet. I am always against a “negative billing”-like scenario. Too much power. There are other avenues to consider first. The first of which is to remove the “family must approve” designation. If someone has signed their donor card, that is a decision made by that individual and shouldn’t be overturned by other people. We always honor the wishes of the deceased in everything else, why not this? Also, when was the last time you went to your doctor for anything and they mentioned organ donation? It should be brought up all the time, pushed to the forefront of society’s consciousness, and the means to be an organ donor should be made simple. I had to search the internet to find out what to do to be recognized as a donor and to get a donor card. I even asked certain health professionals about it, and they couldn’t provide concrete answers. I think these are areas that need to be addressed before going to extremes. What about marketing it like anything else? We all know about Cialis and Viagra and genital herpes because there are commercials on TV for these medications every other commercial break. If the information was readily available, and pushed to the masses, maybe people would start thinking more about it and realizing the good they could do by signing the donor card. It’s a personal choice, and I can’t argue with anyone’s view of it – for or against. All that should be asked is that everyone thinks about it seriously and actually makes a choice, one way or another, rather than being unaware and not even realizing there was a choice to be made.